An adolescent died and several other different individuals had been injured in Villach, Austria, on Saturday after a person attacked them with a knife, officers mentioned. A suspect has been detained in reference to the assault; it’s not clear whether or not he knew the victims.
The assault occurred round 4 p.m. native time, killing a 14-year-old and injuring 4 different individuals, based on the mayor of Villach, a metropolis within the south close to the Italian and Slovenian borders. The police instructed The Associated Press that two individuals had been critically injured.
The suspect is a 23-year-old Syrian man with authorized residence in Austria, native police officers mentioned in an interview with Austria’s public broadcaster ORF. It’s not identified if he lived in Villach. The motive can also be unknown, however police are investigating the suspect’s background, mentioned Rainer Dionisio, a spokesman for the police division in Carinthia, the province the place Villach is positioned.
Peter Kaiser, Carinthia’s governor, known as for the “harshest penalties” for the attacker, saying the perpetrator “have to be placed on trial, imprisoned, and deported” in a post on X. Town’s mayor, Günther Albel, wrote on Meta: “To all those that sow hatred and violence, I say: You’ll not win.”
Several similar attacks in neighboring Germany in current months, together with a automobile assault in Munich final week, have pushed migration to the forefront of that nation’s nationwide election marketing campaign.
Thousands and thousands of Syrians have sought refuge in Europe after a well-liked rebellion in opposition to the nation’s autocratic longtime chief, Bashar al-Assad, that started in 2011 became a civil conflict. The massive migration has strained social security nets in Europe and stirred concern about assimilation, which has at instances taken overtly xenophobic kind and offered a gap for right-wing, nationalist political actions.
The collapse of the Assad regime in December prompted a number of European nations to pause authorized proceedings on asylum standing for Syrians. Austria has mentioned it might plan to deport Syrians whose claims for asylum failed.
Violence is comparatively unusual in Austria, which was ranked because the fifth-safest nation on this planet as of 2023, based on the Global Peace Index.
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